In Repair
by cosettedaae
Summary: AU: April is an art student in NYC when she meets Ben, a man without a job living on the streets. April/Ben.


**Author's Note: This is an AU and really doesn't follow the plot lines from Parks and Rec at all aside from the fact that April is married to Andy and Ben had to resign in disgrace so that his girlfriend could keep her job. The circumstances become apparent as you read, but if there's any confusion feel free to message me and enjoy! I'm just really into writing AU's right now. Also, I haven't yet decided if I'll be continuing this. For now, it's listed as complete but more may come one day. :)**

"Would you be offended if I accidentally poisoned your latte, sir?"

"Um… excuse me?"

"Never mind," April Ludgate sighed and finished ringing the man up at the cash register. "$4.85."

"You know you really should be more polite to your customers," the man said as he handed her his credit card. He was handsome, no, not handsome, he was really hot. But kind of old. But that hot kind of old that April liked. He didn't understand that she had initially been flirting with him, so when he snapped at her, her initial response was to snap back.

"Hey, I don't tell you how to be an accountant or whatever you are."

"I'm a movie director."

"Oh… I still don't tell you how to do that."

"Can I have my card back?"

"Here," she handed him his card along with his receipt and he walked off down the counter. She'd never been so rudely rejected before. Usually she could act as bitchy as she wanted and guys would fall for it. Maybe she was losing her charm. She blamed it on her work uniform and ponytail for making her look like a confused ten year old boy.

Everything seemed to be harder for April recently. Not that she'd lived a particularly easy life up until then, but she had been fairly lucky in most aspects. She had done well enough in school to earn a scholarship to NYU and was a good enough artist to get into NYU. And she did all this despite having no support at home from either of her divorced parents and having to spend half of her teenage years caring after her younger sister. She'd been lucky enough to find a swanky coffee shop that served shitty lattes at abominably high prices to work at so that she could support herself in New York City. And most of all, she'd been lucky she'd found Andy.

Andy was April's husband whom she loved with all of her heart. He was worse off than she was when they met. Working as a shoe-shiner (something he still did) and living in an apartment with six other men who had no idea what the phrase "personal hygiene" meant. Oh, and he was in a band. They weren't very good but April lied and said they were the greatest band she'd ever seen and if they didn't make it big she'd jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. This wasn't a promise she intended to keep.

She knew all along it was a bad idea so marry him so suddenly. But hell, she couldn't help herself. She wanted to be married. She loved Andy. What was better than putting those two things together? Staying an independent female until she found someone actually worthy of her love and affection? Sure. She always figured she'd divorce him if she found someone better. That's what both her parents did, so it couldn't be that bad.

But she was getting bored of him and worst of all, he wasn't getting bored of her. She wanted someone else to hook up. She didn't want Andy to be the only guy she ever kissed or fucked for the rest of her life. The thought of that made her nearly sick to her stomach. Andy was an idiot, but Andy loved April and he'd never cheat on her. So she felt horrible for wanting to sleep around. But she was twenty-one years old, those were normal feelings. He was twenty-eight. Maybe at twenty-eight you got tired of sleeping around. But Andy was just plain lazy and she had a hard time believing he had ever cheated on any of his past relationships.

On one of the rainiest Saturday afternoons in September, April was having a very difficult time trying to catch a cab. She'd just gotten her pay check the day before and could afford to take a cab every now and then. She didn't live too far from where she worked and it was pouring to the point where an umbrella would barely help. Yet of course, everyone else in the whole city had apparently had the same idea and absolutely no cab was available to stop for her.

"Fuck you!" she yelled at the last cab that rolled by with no one in the backseat. "Go to hell bastard!" she called after him as she walked, hood pulled up and arms crossed, down the street. "I don't mind walking home in the freezing rain, nope, don't mind at all," she muttered under her breath. The streets were bare aside from the traffic. And there were homeless men everywhere. She knew there was a reason she preferred to take a cab.

"Any spare change?" asked a man, huddled on the ground with a wind breaker over his head.

"Do I look like I have spare change?" she snapped. "Do you think I'd be walking right now if I had any spare change?" The truth of the matter was that she had a bundle of useless coins that she was tired of carrying around in her wallet, but she wouldn't tell him that.

"Sorry," he retorted.

"It's whatever," she had already stopped walking so she took a second to look at the man. Was he seriously homeless? He looked like a normal guy. Granted, the excessive scruff on his face didn't help, but he was good looking. He must be on some sort of heavy drugs or something. "Mind if I sit down for a minute?" she asked over the sound of the rain.

"Sure," he said and she plopped down on the sidewalk next to him. They were in plain view of the street so she figured he couldn't get away with trying anything. He positioned the windbreak to cover her head as well.

"Thanks," she sighed. "So what's wrong with you?"

"What?"

"Why are you homeless?"

"I don't have a job. I don't have any money. I don't even have any money to fly home and live with my mom or something lame like that. Not that I'd want to do that at my age."

"How old are you?"

"38."

"Oh," she turned her head to get a better look at him. He had a weird crooked nose and was really thin and he kind of smelled bad. But she attributed that to the homelessness. "I'm 21 and married and I hate my life."

"Married? Jesus Christ, I'm sorry."

"What are you like anti-marriage?"

"Relationships haven't treated me well."

"Clearly." He gave her a look but she didn't want to apologize. If he didn't get her humor, he didn't have to talk to her.

"Why did you get married so young?"

"Because."

"Oh, of course," he said sarcastically. She appreciated his use of sarcasm.

"How did you lose your job?"

"Sex scandal. I worked for the government and was sleeping with a co-worker. I had to resign in disgrace."

"That sucks," she said though she was secretly thinking how cool having a sex scandal would be.

"Yeah. And then she dumped me because I refused to get a job and she couldn't support me on her own."

"What a bitch. I support my husband. He makes like nothing and I'm in school but like… when you love someone you support them."

"Yeah. So here I am. Homeless Ben, human disaster."

April laughed. "Human disaster," she paused and let a silence fill the air between them. The rain was beginning to subside, but it didn't really matter. Both of them were soaked through their clothes. "Do you want to like… god I hate being nice… but do you want to have dinner or something like that? You can borrow a towel or a clean shirt or something…" She really did hate being nice, but she really felt like she made some sort of connection with this guy – on a personal level, not just by his appearance (which, despite his good looks, was actually closer to frightening and disgusting.)

"Um… I wouldn't want to intrude and I've got a… thing to do."

"You're a terrible liar. I'll keep that in mind," she took her half of the windbreaker off her head and stood up. "Come on Homeless Ben," she extended a hand down to him. "We're having left-over, left-over Chinese food."

He used her hand to help himself up. He was weak; he'd barely had a square meal in days. Not to mention the prescription drugs he'd gotten his hands on were making him feel a little uneasy.

"Thanks…"

"April."

"Thanks April."

"Don't mention it."


End file.
